Possibility: Twenty Years
by Mystic83
Summary: What if something went wrong inside the Tomb of Athena? What if the Fleet “lost” its two best pilots? KaraLee
1. Chapter 1

**This will be a series of stand-alone stories which deal with the choices that the characters on Battlestar Galactica have made throughout the first half of the second season (I'll be posting in as much of the order of the season as I can). I want to explore what would have happened/changed if things had gone differently. Some of the stories will be angst, some will be shippy, some will be funny. There will be different pairings throughout. Don't feel like you have to check out each one to understand the others. All I ask is that if it intrigues you, then give it a try. Hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!**

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_**There are pivotal moments in one's life where if you take the wrong path everything may change. Those changes may be for the good or for the bad. The possibilities are endless.**_

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Admiral William Adama felt the tug when Galactica pulled out of the FTL jump. He was getting too old for this. No person stayed in the Fleet when they were almost eighty years old. The gods would never ask that of a mere mortal, but he supposed it was necessary. Times were hard. If anyone knew that, it would be the man in charge of leading the remnants of humanity to the elusive thirteenth colony.

He had sacrificed a lot to get his people here.

"Sir?"

He turned at the sound of Colonel Gaeta's voice. The young man had been serving as his XO since Saul had succumbed to the consequences of years of alcohol abuse. The loss of his best friend five years earlier was just one in a series of events that would have ripped the will to live right out of his body if only there weren't so many people depending on him. A man of eighty years should not have to keep living after losing most of the men who served under him, including the best Chief Petty Officer the Fleet had ever seen. So many people had given their lives to the cause.

Lately, Adama found himself focusing on the harsh reality that he had been denying. It was time to rebuild his world for a third time. It was time to accept that he would have to make this last fateful decision, and he was going to have to do it without her, the one woman he had found the faith to believe in when the world needed rebuilding twenty years earlier. Laura Roslin had succumbed to her illness a long time ago, but her vision still fueled the Fleet.

Adama cleared his throat and turned to his XO. "What is it, Felix?"

"The CIC crew is reporting that our calculations were on target. If you can believe it, our destination should be right in front of us."

Adama looked at the woman standing over his shoulder at the communication hub. It seemed like Anastasia had always been there in that exact spot every time he needed her. With the dependable things in his life few and far between, it was nice to have here there. "Dee, I need to speak to the CAG."

"You got it, sir." Dee punched a few buttons on the consul in front of her, and the comm link opened on the main speak. "Hot Dog, Galactica Actual wishes to speak with you."

"If you want confirmation, Admiral, you got it," Hot Dog said before the question could even be asked. The sheer joy in his voice didn't go unnoticed. "This is it. It really exists."

Adama turned in a slow circle, taking in all the expectant faces surrounding him. "Suggestions anyone?"

No one flinched to hear the leader of their Fleet asking for input. Things had become awfully lax in the past twenty years. They had been fighting to stay alive for so long that rank no longer mattered. Each person had a right to weigh in on decisions that may change their life.

"We can't just land, sir," Dee pointed out. "It's been on its own for thousands of years. They may have developed defensive systems like ours."

"What Dee's trying to say, sir, is she doesn't want us shot out of the sky," Gaeta interpreted, earning himself a glare from his wife.

"We can't just hover in space," another Petty Officer said. Adama couldn't tell who. It seemed like the faces around him were constantly changing, and the new officers all looked the same.

He drew himself back to consider the man's suggestion and nodded. "Understood. So if we can't try to land and we can't hover in space, what _is_ there to do?"

Hot Dog's voice filtered into the conversation. "If I might suggest something?"

Adama had forgotten the comm line was still open. "Go ahead, Captain."

"I think we should just buckle down and welcome those two space ships currently flying towards us."

Adama looked up at the Dradis and saw the two dots representing unidentified aircraft as they made their way slowly across the screen. Everyone had been too busy to notice them. With sloppiness like that, it was a wonder they had made it this far.

"Admiral, should I launched the alert fighters?" Dee asked.

"Sir, no need," Hot Dog's voice cut in. "The ships… frak me… they're running a flight pattern. It's the one taught in Academy. How the frak could they know that?"

"Focus please, Captain," Gaeta demanded. "We're going to need a little more information."

"The ships are leaving their underbellies exposed to us. It's a sign of trust that the Academy taught should only be used if you know who you are greeting. I think they're welcoming us, sir."

Adama ground his knuckles against the CIC table in anticipation as he watched the blips representing Hot Dog and his wingman as they inched closer to the unidentified ships. He was shocked to see both ships come to a stop, apparently nose to nose with one another.

"Um, sir?" The confusion in Hot Dog's voice filtered over the choppy comm. "They're asking to speak to you by name."

Adama motioned for Dee. "Boost their signal if you can, Petty Officer."

"Signal boosted, sir. Comm line open."

"This is Galactica Actual. Please identify yourself."

"First Lieutenant Parker of the 109th Airborne. Is this Commander William Adama?"

"Admiral William Adama," he corrected. "How do you know my name, soldier?"

A light laugh rang through the whole CIC. "We've been waiting for you for over twenty years now, sir. Permission is given for you to fly to the coordinates I'm sending. You're cleared to land, sir. Welcome to the… I believe you call it the Thirteenth Colony."

Adama shut his eyes as a surge of hope came over him. He had given everything he had to save the people around him. It had been a struggle every day for twenty years as he fought to take the Fleet to this point. He had sacrificed everything including the two people he loved the most.

As the sounds of Hot Dog describing the planet filled the background, Adama shut his eyes and remembered Kara and Lee on the last day he saw them alive. Not having them by his side broke his heart.

* * *

William Adama sat in an empty conference room and tried to accept the fact that he still had no idea what was going on. 

The young Lieutenant had invited the whole Fleet to land at the air base, but Adama had thought that unwise to leave themselves so vulnerable. That meant the whole of the Fleet, including the Galactica, was left circling the space above the planet while Adama himself took a Raptor down to the surface. Parker offered to lead him into the base and, after a quick shared look with Racetrack, Adama followed him. He was aware that this could be a horrible mistake, but the morale of the Fleet couldn't take another hit. They had been struggling for twenty years now.

Parker silently took Adama to this room and informed him there were a few people who were dying to met him. Then the young Lieutenant was gone, leaving him alone in the quiet.

Adama couldn't shake the nagging suspicion that this situation wasn't as simple as he wanted to believe. This was supposed to be the lost colony of Kobol. There had been thousands of years of no communication, and yet the people on this world knew his name. Even more than that, they seemed to have respect for what he had done by getting the Fleet halfway across the universe.

He hated to admit it, but all these questions reminded him of the Cylons. The toasters had always known things that they never should have. He wouldn't be surprised if this was all just another part of the Cylons' plans to destroy humanity.

The sound of the door unlocking brought Adama to his feet, despite the creaking in his old bones. He braced himself for the appearance of another copy of Sharon Valerii or D'Anna Biers or Billy Keikeya. He was determined not to be surprised when the Cylon stepped through the door to tear away the Fleet's last hope that they had finally found some solace.

That determination was the reason that his breath was taken away when the last person he expected to see entered the room.

"Lee?"

Lee smiled. "Hello, Dad. It took you long enough to get here."

"I don't believe it," William Adama spit out.

Lee stepped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around his father. "Believe it. I've been waiting for you for so long."

He tried his best, but for the first five minutes, Adama could not bring himself to speak. He could only grip his son tightly and hope this was not another cruel Cylon deception. When he did find his words, they came at rapid pace. "I don't understand. How did you get here? The last time I saw you was on Kobol over twenty years ago!"

"It's a long story and one that is going to have to wait for a few minutes." Lee pulled back and smiled at his father. "You've gotten old, Dad."

Adama smiled. "I know. A lot can change in twenty years."

"I know." Lee's eyes drifted down to the hand that was resting on his father's shoulders. William Adama was surprised to see a small gold band on his son's left hand.

"You finally found someone?"

Lee's smile widened even farther if that was possible. "Yes, I did. Do you want to meet her?"

"As soon as I can."

Lee put on a look of astonishment before letting out a deep laugh. "It took me over forty years, but I finally got William Adama to forget his military obligations to focus on family."

"I might be eighty, but I can still wipe that indignant smirk off your face," Adama threatened.

"I couldn't help it," Lee laughed. "But seriously, the mission can wait. Trust me. The Fleet is safe here."

"This is the Thirteenth Colony?"

Lee nodded and was about to say something when a brisk knock sounded on the hatch. He sighed. "I should have known she wouldn't listen. I asked her to give me a few minutes alone with you, but she's never been one for patience."

"Your wife?" Adama said.

"She might be the love of my life, but she still annoys the frak out of me," Lee grumbled. He got up to open the door and was greeted by having a small child shoved into his arms.

"Your son insisted on coming with me even though I told him he had to go to school. It seems his Daddy told him he could have the day off. Then again, Daddy didn't know little Zak was going to use his spare time to light the bushes in our backyard on fire."

Adama stared at the woman who had so effectively scolded his son as she stepped into the room and walked over to him. He had truly believed he would never see that smile again. "Kara?"

"Hello, sir," she smirked. "Or should I be calling you Dad?"

William Adama felt his heart tighten. He was too overwhelmed to deal with the fact that the daughter he had in everything but name was actually an official part of his family now. A small voice in the back of his head pointed out that this was all probably a dream.

Kara turned to glare at Lee. "You didn't tell him!"

"You didn't give me time," Lee hissed as he tried to deal with the squirming child in his arms. "You were supposed to wait."

"I was going to. It was Zak that was being uncooperative."

"I'm sure," Lee said, shaking his head. "Sometimes I wonder what I did wrong to get stuck with you all those years ago."

"Don't give me that crap!" Kara yelled. "You thank the gods every night that they saw it fit to take us both."

"Some things never change," Adama said as he sat down in the chair behind him.

Kara stepped forward to rest her hand on Adama's shoulder. "We're ruining the moment, aren't we, sir?"

"First off, you don't have to call me sir, Kara. Secondly, _nothing _can ruin this. I thought you two were gone."

"Come on, sir!" Kara laughed. "Do you really think something like the Tomb of Athena is going to do in the mighty Starbuck and Apollo?"

"I should have known better," Adama decided. His eyes locked with the young boy in Lee's arms. The little boy hid his face in his father's chest. It was a sight Adama thought he would never see. "That's my grandson."

"One of them," Kara said, laughing. Adama's eyes went wide. "Come on, sir. You have been gone for twenty years."

"How many?" Adama asked.

"Zak is the youngest," Lee said as he moved to take the seat next to his father. "Then there are the twins, Colum and Laura. They're both twelve. Maeve, our oldest, will be sixteen next week. We would have named our next child after you if Kara hadn't almost killed me when she gave birth to Zak here. I couldn't go through that again."

"Shut up!" Kara said, sending him a glare. "I only broke your fraking arm."

"In three places," Lee reminded her. Little Zak turned to look at his mother and held up three fingers.

"Traitor," she said before pulling her son into her arms. "But damn if you don't have that fraking Adama smile, little man. You know I'm a sucker for it."

Lee glanced over at his father and realized he have never expected his father to look so changed. This was the first time in Lee's life where he could physically see the weight of the world was pressing down on his father. William Adama had always been a pillar of strength even under the worst conditions. "This is probably too much for you to take in right now."

"There's so much I can't even begin to understand."

"We lived it and we don't even understand," Kara said with a smile. "But we'll explain it to you in time. For now, I think you might need a break from the Admiral business."

"You heard about the promotion?"

"About fraking time, I say! You'll have to tell me how that came about when you have a spare moment." Kara pulled herself to her feet and set Zak down onto the floor. "For now, I want you to forget that you're a military officer. Lee and I need someone to baby-sit this little rugrat."

"Where are you going?" Adama asked as his grandson dutifully toddled over to grab his grandfather's knees.

"Kara hasn't flown a Raptor or a Viper in years. She was hoping you'd let us go back to the Fleet and tell them where all the ships could land."

"You do trust us, don't you, sir?" Kara asked.

Adama answered by scooping Zak into his arms. "Ask for Colonel Gaeta when you get within range. He'll be happy to hear your voices."

Lee stood up. "Zak, why don't you show your Pappy the house that I built for us?"

Zak nodded and started pulling his grandfather into the corridor. The bickering between Kara and Lee filtered in the background behind him as they started arguing about who got to fly the ship. William Adama managed to glance back at them as Zak pulled him around the corner. His son and daughter might be bickering loudly, but they were walking down the hall hand-in-hand.

Somehow it soothed him to know that some things could never change, no matter how much time has passed.


	2. Chapter 2

Kara smiled at Lee as she took her seat in the main pilot chair. She knew he would give in and let her fly back to Galactica. In all the years they had been together, he had never successfully refused her anything. "I love you, flyboy," she said, giving him a wink.

"You haven't called me that in years," Lee pointed out, sitting in the co-pilot chair beside her. It had taken longer than they expected to reach this point. Racetrack had practically hyperventilated at seeing her old shipmates.

"Your father's going to want to know how we ended up married," Kara pointed out as she started pre-flight.

"He's not going to like it."

"No, I'm not talking about the first time we got married," she said with a laugh. "We should probably just leave that part out of the story."

Lee laughed. "Good point."

Kara pulled the Raptor up into the air and sighed. "This feels good."

"Like coming home?"

"Yeah." She clicked a few buttons, and the ship took off for the sky above. "So do you think your father is really okay with having me as a daughter-in-law?"

"Kara, I think he's more than okay with it."

"I know, but the whole thing happened so quickly. Maybe he was just happy to see me alive. Maybe he didn't really understand that his son had taken a girl from the wrong side of the Caprican tracks for a wife."

"I thought we got past that crap sixteen years ago. I don't give two shits that you grew up in the crappy slums of half the Twelve Colonies. I love you, Kara, and my father loves you, too." Lee chuckled. "Hell, I bet if we had stayed with the Fleet, he would have done everything in his power to _make_ me want to marry you. You mean a lot to him."

"Do you think he could have done it? I mean, if we had stayed with the Fleet that day, could he have made you want me?"

Lee leaned over to pull Kara's hand to his lips. "He wouldn't have had to push very hard."

Kara smiled at her husband. It always surprised her how easy it was to talk with Lee. Twenty years before, she could never have imagined wearing her feelings on her sleeve. Somehow knowing Lee had changed all that. They had been shoved into a world they didn't know that day in the Tomb of Athena. Kara could still remember the feeling of confusion that had come over her.

One minute, she and Lee were sharing a private smile about finding the map to the Thirteenth Colony, and the next they were watching everyone fade out around them. The two pilots were left alone in a grassy field as they tried to figure out what had just happened.

They had stood there for an hour trying to determine if there was a way to turn off whatever the Arrow of Apollo had turned on. After coming to the conclusion that they couldn't just stand there for their rest of their lives, Kara and Lee started walking until they came upon a road. The road led to a city which led to a revelation that would shake the core of their existence.

Somehow they had ended up on the Thirteenth Colony with no way of getting back home to Galactica.

"We're here," Racetrack yelled from the ECO seat.

Lee watched his wife's face spread into what he had always called her wicked look. "Watch this," she said, clicking on the comm. "Galactica, Raptor One, requesting permission to land."

"Raptor One, starboard launch tube B is clear for you," Dee answered.

"Oh! You guys finally converted that thing back from a gift shop?"

"What did you say, Racetrack?"

Racetrack smirked and clicked into the comm link. "That wasn't me talking, Dee, and you might want to patch this next part through to the whole CIC. She's got her cocky face on."

Kara smirked at Lee before continuing, "Greetings and salutations from the great beyond, Galactica. This is Kara Thrace calling to say you better get that stick out of your ass so you can humbly land on the Thirteenth Colony."

"Starbuck?"

The pure astonishment in Dee's voice made Kara laugh. "Yeah, it's me. Glad to hear you're still manning the comms, Dee."

"I can't believe you're fraking alive."

"She wouldn't be if I didn't keep saving her ass," Lee interjected.

"L… Lee?"

"Come on, Dee," Kara said with a laugh. "Do you really you'd get Starbuck without Apollo?"

"No, sir, I guess not."

"Bringing in the cat!" she whooped. As the Raptor docked in the flight by, Kara chuckled. "Gods. This feels as good as I remember."

"Better than sex, right?" Racetrack joked as she stood up to lower the ramp.

Kara glanced over at Lee before shaking her head at Racetrack. "Not the kind I'm having. Now show me my home."

The trio stepped out into the hangar bay and were greeted with the many changes that had happened on Galactica. The ship was running on a skeleton crew, headed up by Chief Petty Officer Rachael Cally and Commander of the Air Group, Captain Brendan Constanza. Along with Cally and Hot Dog, Colonel Felix Gaeta welcomed the two famous pilots back on board.

"It's good to be home," Kara said, stepping forward to hug her old friends.

Apollo did the same, giving the young Specialist he had always had a soft spot for a warm smile as she started to cry. "Cally, it's good to see they finally realized what a great Chief you would make."

"Thank you ,sir," Cally sniffed.

Lee released his hold on her and turned to Gaeta. "What about the President?"

"Laura Roslin left this plane of existence a long time ago," Gaeta said after a moment's pause, "and our current President was taken to Colonial One along with her husband and daughter as a safety precaution. She knows of the situation, though, and is dying to see you two."

Kara held out the papers in her hand. "These are the coordinates for where Galactica and the rest of the Fleet can land. There will be military personnel to escort you to holding areas until we can figure out where to put everyone."

"Good. It's going to take a few hours to confirm this and get all the ships docked safely." Gaeta looked around at the crew before motioning for the two old pilots to follow him. "There are a few things you need to know. The Fleet took on heavy losses when we lost President Roslin and her successor."

"Dr. Baltar," Kara acknowledged.

"No, Gaius Baltar never took office. That's a story for another time, though. All you need to know is that we had a string of ineffectual leaders after Roslin. Your father unofficially ran the civilian government for the most of the time you two were away. However, a few years ago, the Admiral and I finally came upon a solution to our problem. We appointed Sharon Valerii to the position."

"You made a Cylon the President of the Fleet?" Apollo exclaimed.

"She has been an integral part of keeping the Fleet safe from the toasters. In fact, she was the key to our final evasion. We haven't seen the Cylons in over two years now. Their forces dwindled the closer we got to Earth."

"But a Cylon?" Kara objected.

"She's earned our trust," Gaeta said.

The trio fell into silence as they continued through the corridors of Galactica until something occurred to Kara. "Wait. You said before that you were concerned for the President's safety in addition to her husband and daughter, didn't you?"

"If you remember, the Cylon copy you brought back to the Fleet was pregnant, Starbuck." Gaeta smiled at them as he pulled to a stop in front of a closed hatchway. "Helo is going to be quite happy to hear that you beat the odds again."

Kara's face beamed as she looked over at Lee. Helo had been her best friend in the Fleet before Lee came along and the whole world got a lot more tangled. Besides the Old Man, he was the person that Kara thought about most at night when she was cuddled in next to her husband, wondering what life would have been like if they were still with the Fleet.

"This is the old officer's quarters," Gaeta said, punching a code into the door jam. "Adama had the pilots move as the old regime died out. With you and Apollo gone and Helo out of the action because of the baby, the new additions to the Fleet had to step up and take charge. They couldn't do that if they were still in your shadow." Gaeta motioned for them to enter the room. "I figured you might be most comfortable waiting here. Call Dee if you need anything. Otherwise, I'll see you two when Galactica's prepared to dock."

Lee nodded to the XO while watching Kara step into their past. She dragged her hand along the top of the metal table in the middle of the room as she made her way to her locker. When she opened it to see a war-torn photograph staring back, she began to cry. She turned back to smile at her husband. "My picture…"

Lee winked. He knew how much that picture meant to her. It had been taken on one of Lee's rare visits to see his brother and Kara at the Academy. Life had been a whole lot simpler back then.

Kara pulled the tape off the edges of the picture, and clutching it to her heart, she lay down on the bunk that had been hers for years. Lee moved to take a seat in one of the metal chairs, but her hand came out to stop him. "Lay down with me," she asked.

Lee nodded and gathered his wife up in his arms as they both settled in to the tiny space.

Kara let out a sigh. "I always dreamed about how right this would feel."

"How right what would feel?"

"Having you all to myself in one of these bunks," she whispered, burying her face against him. "Feeling you near me and knowing that for once it wasn't all just a dream."

"I dreamed about you, too, Kara," Lee sighed, kissing the top of her head.

Kara smiled to herself. Her thoughts quickly drifted to what might have been. She had often wondered if she and Lee would have ended up where they were today if they had stayed on Galactica or if they would still have been dancing around each other, afraid of the possibilities. A small chuckle from the man currently holding her in his arms pulled her from those familiar thoughts. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"I just can't believe it took me twenty years to get into your bed," Lee joked, earning himself a smack from Kara. He pulled the blankets up from the bottom of the bunk and tucked them in around their joined bodies. It struck him as funny to realize that he agreed with Kara. This was exactly like he had always imagined it. "It's nice to be home."

Kara nodded as she felt sleep begin to claim her. Her mind went back to the day over sixteen years ago when she had figured out her home was with Lee.


	3. Chapter 3

Lee had been staring at the same piece of paper for over an hour, and it was starting to make him mad. It shouldn't be this hard.

"Just sign it, you stupid idiot, and you can be done," he hissed to himself.

He picked the pen up off the table and put it on the dotted line, but his hand just would not obey. The signature on the line above where his hand wouldn't sign felt like it was mocking him. Groaning, Lee flung the pen across the room.

It was official. He did not want to sign the divorce papers.

This was the last thing he needed right now. Lee had been struggling for four years to get this government to believe what he was trying to say, and it finally seemed like they did. Granted, it probably would have taken him that long to believe the word of two strangers who claimed they were space pilots who got magically transported to the Thirteenth Colony from the birthplace of the gods. Still, things had just started to work themselves out, and now his heart decided to throw him a curveball.

"How's it going, flyboy?" Kara called as she stepped in Lee's office.

Lee moved to shove the papers underneath a stack of files before she could figure out what he was doing. Kara would only tease him for being ridiculous. "It's going good. I'm just trying to catch up on the work that backed up while we were on our last mission."

"I bet. Three months was an awfully long time to be gone, but who would have guessed that terrorist group would have been so hard to infiltrate?" Kara took a seat on the edge of his desk. "I just wish the government hadn't pushed us to such extremes. All that fraking paperwork we have to go through."

Lee's eyes shifted to the partially concealed paper. "So I thought you would have already been in the thick of things by now. You know that flight program can't run without you."

"That's because those stupid frakers knew nothing about flying until we came along," Kara pointed out. "They thought getting to the planet next door was a big accomplishment."

"Kara, you cannot keep bad mouthing the people we work with. This is our home."

"It doesn't feel like it," she mumbled, staring down at her hands.

"I know this can never be like Caprica or Picon. Frak, it isn't even Galactica, but it's the best we have. We can't search for the others until we give this planet the capability to do so." Kara rolled her eyes, and Lee felt the urge to smile. She hated when he gave her the 'we have to do this the right way even if it takes forever' speech. Sighing, Lee leaned back in his chair. "Seriously, I thought you would be down at the training grounds checking on your newest round of rookie pilots."

Kara looked up at him for a moment and then reached down to pull a ring off her hand. "I wanted to stop by here first and give you this. You said it was your mother's. I figured you might want it for the day you find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with and not just someone you have to marry to keep your cover from being blown."

"Right. Whose stupid idea was that?"

"Yours," Kara smirked. "But I didn't object to it, if you recall."

Lee took the ring from her and stared down at it. She was right about one thing. He had always intended to give it to the woman he chose to spend the rest of his life with. Too bad that was the same woman currently returning it to him.

When he had first given it to her, he hadn't realized it was going to be this painful to end it. He hadn't thought that far ahead. All he knew was he had to stay integral to this organization for both his sake and Kara's sake. If they ever wanted to see their family again, they had to be at the top of their game. Letting himself get emotionally involved with Kara would ruin their chance so he just needed to get this over with before he did something stupid like beg her to keep the ring. "I got the divorce papers today."

Kara nodded, still staring down at her hands. "Yeah, I told legal to rush them through. I figured you'd want to get this over and done with as soon as possible."

"Why? There's no need to rush. It's not like I have girls waiting in line outside my door to be Mrs. Lee Adama."

"You're obviously not looking hard enough. I have to fight them off with a stick every time you and I go out to unwind," she joked. "Women would give everything to have you pay them a little attention."

"Very funny, Kara," Lee stood up. "Now, seriously, I have work to do and you have pilots to pester."

Kara pulled herself off the desk and stuck her tongue out at him. "Spoilsport."

"I speak the truth."

"Fine. Just give me the divorce papers so I can file them, and I guarantee I'll be out of your hair for a few hours."

"I can't. I haven't signed them yet," Lee explained. "You can grab them another time."

"Come on, Lee! It will take you two seconds." Kara protested and started searching the desk. "I'll even make a little star by the line you have to sign so you don't screw it up."

Lee grabbed her hand just as she was about to push aside the stack of files that was hiding the papers in question. "Why are you in such a hurry to get this done? If I didn't know better, Kara, I would think you had somebody already lined up to be your next conquest."

"And if I didn't know better, Lee, I would think you didn't want to sign the papers at all," she said, raising an eyebrow at him. "But to answer your question, no, there isn't anybody like that in my life right now. I don't think these Earthboys know what the heck to do with a woman like me."

Lee knew that wasn't the truth. Kara had put plenty of new notches on her bedpost since they got to this planet four years earlier. The men of Earth couldn't get enough of her. Lee was proud of how far he had come in controlling his jealousy. Kara barely even noticed anymore.

The thought of Kara waking up in another man's arms every morning would test that control, though.

"Here they are!" Kara exclaimed as she grabbed hold of the hidden divorce papers. "You had them under all the overdue paperwork from last year."

Lee hoped she didn't notice his face falling. All he's wanted for the past four years was to have this whole nightmare be over, but now he would give his life for a little more time. Them maybe he could figure out a way to convince her that they couldn't live without each other anymore.

They had been playing their parts for three months so the terrorist group would believe their cover. It was supposed to be a simple assignment. Stay in character for long enough to figure out if the new flight program was at risk. Then something shifted, and the organization started asking questions. It was an out of the box plan, something worthy of Kara's imagination, but their marriage had somehow drawn the attention away from them.

After that, it should have been smooth sailing. The problem was it had been far too easy to let himself believe that what was happening between them was real. He and Kara had lived and breathed the married life in almost every sense of the word.

That was what hurt the most. He knew what it was like to be with her and all he could do was watch in horror as it slipped away.

"You know, as crazy as it sounds, I really enjoyed these last few months," Kara said, holding the papers out to Lee. "It was nice having someone to come home to."

"Someone to cook for you, you mean," Lee joked. He took the papers from her and set them down on the table again. It still felt like those fraking things were laughing at how pathetic he was.

Lee looked up in time to see Kara's whole face fall. "Oh gods. I never thought of that. What am I going to do?"

He walked over to put his arm around her and pull her in close. "Don't worry. I think we can get away with you still coming over to my house for dinner. However, I think our boss might object if you try to snuggle into bed with me when it gets cold."

Kara let out a laugh but didn't move away from under his arm. She had gotten used to having a warm body to curl up to at night. The fact that it was Lee and not some random man made it all the better. Like always, he had been the one to provide her comfort when the nightmares of past reared their ugly heads. Only this time Lee had been with her constantly so there was never a moment where she felt unsafe.

It was the first time in her life she experienced that, and it was killing her that she had to give it up. Since she was little, though, she had learned that all good things come to an end. This was just another disappointment for her to punch and swear her way through. She hoped to the gods she could handle it.

Gritting her teeth, Kara reached down to grab the papers again. "You need to sign this before I start begging you to not to, Lee."

"Like you really want to be married to an emotional frak-up like me," he joked.

Kara let out a laugh, but on the inside, she desperately wanted to tell him that he would be surprised how much she _did _want to being married to an emotional frak-up _exactly _like him. Something had happened between the two of them during their mission. The awkwardness of what they had been asked to do wore off within a few days of starting the assignment, and Kara had begun to feel like she and Lee were really just a normal couple. It was the first time since Zak died that she had let herself imagine the possibility of a future that she could be happy with.

Somewhere during those three months, she had let down her guard and allowed herself to fall in love with Lee Adama. There had been a few moments when she had caught small hints that the same might be true for him. Her continuous insistence that he sign the papers to end their marriage was her own special way of seeing if she was right.

All the years she had known Lee, there was one thing that never changed. When he figured out what it was he wanted, nothing could stop him. If he wanted her, he wouldn't be able to sign those papers. He couldn't.

"I don't have a pen," Lee declared.

"If you ever cleaned your desk, maybe you would," Kara laughed. She pushed the mess around his desk for a few seconds before coming up with a pen in her hand.

Lee looked up at her as he took the pen from her fingertips. "Nothing to stop be from signing now, right?"

"Not one thing," Kara insisted. His gaze was beginning to make her uncomfortable. He kept looking at her like he was searching for something. She didn't know how to interpret that.

"It's ridiculous if you think about it. One little paper can dissolve something as big as a marriage. I just have to sign my name, and that's it. The past three months are just gone."

"It's not like signing that thing is going to make us forget," Kara pointed out.

"Maybe it would be better if it did," Lee whispered as he uncapped the pen.

Kara didn't know what to say in response to that. Was he trying to tell her he thought the past three months were so good that he would have trouble not having her there or was he saying that he would rather forget the past three months because they were horrible? And why did everything in her life have to be so confusing?

"Something so simple as this shouldn't be this hard, right?" Lee asked, looking over at her.

"I'm sure you have more important things to do than mourn the loss of your first wife, Lee," she teased softly. "I know I do." She had a date with a blank canvas and a bottle of whiskey. That combination had never done her wrong.

Lee nodded and, after a moment's pause, signed his name to the papers. "All done then."

"I've probably kept you too long," Kara said with a sad smile. "I think the Colonel wanted to see you in Mission Planning. You should probably get down there before he gets mad."

"Sure." Lee walked to the door before turning to look back at her. Kara was still leaning on the edge of his desk, staring down at the papers on his desk. She looked like something was bothering her, but that made no sense to him. She had wanted him to sign those papers, hadn't she? He watched her for a moment more before asking, "Are you going to be all right?"

Kara snapped to attention and looked over at him. "Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I'm still tired from the last mission."

"Get some rest then. Those papers can be filed in the morning."

Kara nodded and waited until the door clicked shut before letting herself begin to cry. She had actually let herself believe that he would never sign this papers. How could she have been so stupid to think that a guy like Lee Adama would want to spend the rest of his life with a girl like her? It went against everything she had ever been taught.

But gods, how she wanted everything she had been taught to be wrong.

It had taken her years to get over the scars that Zak's death left behind. She would never have dreamed it would take the love of his older brother to make her believe she was worthy of someone again. The irony was not lost on her.

She would have been so lost if Lee hadn't been abandoned on Earth alongside her. He had been her rock as they tried to find their place on a planet that was so familiar and yet so different. They had both done their best to carry on as normal, and it had worked for over four years. Then they had to go and do something stupid like get married in order to make a mission go smoother.

It had surprised her the morning that she woke up and turned over to realize the gods had given her everything she had never had the courage to want. Since she was a small girl, she had laughed at all the other kids who dreamed of being married with lots of babies. That was the last thing she wanted. She saw what children could do to a parent, and she never wanted to be like that.

That was before Lee, though. Kara should have known she would find a way to frak this up.

The tears fell down her face as memories of things she would never have again kept coming to the surface. She could remember the sleepy smile Lee had given her each morning as they woke up side by side. There were those lazy mornings where she would sit at the kitchen counter watching him make breakfast for two while she silently thanked the gods he had only had the foresight to slip on a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. She could remember the way he had started using terms of endearment like any husband would, and the first time he had said he loved her still made her heart skip a beat.

She had been taken aback the day she realized how bad she wanted to keep this life, but what surprised her even more was the day she took a closer look at what was behind Lee's smile. _That_ was what made her think he would never sign the papers her tears were currently staining. Kara did her best to push them away without blurring the ink. She wasn't sure if she could ask Lee to sign them again.

Out of nowhere, the office door slid open. Kara turned her back and hoped they would just go away. She was not in the mood.

"Sorry. I forgot the files the Colonel wanted and I wasn't sure he would be-" Lee paused as he got closer to his desk. "What's wrong, Kara?"

"Nothing," she spit out, hoping her voice didn't sound too weak. "I told you I was exhausted before. I think everything's catching up to me right now. Tough mission and all."

Lee didn't really believe her, but he knew from experience you didn't argue with Kara when she was upset. "Let me know if you need me to cover your shift or something."

"I should be fine," she said, turning to give him a brave smile. When her eyes locked with his, she knew she had made a mistake. The tears were starting to fall all over again, and the look on Lee's face told her that he wasn't going to buy any bullshit that she fed him. It fraking pissed her off that he knew her so well.

"I don't think so," Lee said, taking a step towards her. It might be a mistake, but just this once, Lee couldn't bring himself to let Kara work through her pain alone. He reached out to touch her arms in support. "You're starting to worry me here, Kara. You've never let the stress of a mission get to you this much. Are you sure there isn't anything else that's bothering you?"

"Would you stop trying to be understanding?" she yelled, pushing his hands away. "I'm sick and tired of you acting like that."

"Like a friend who cares about you?" he exclaimed. "What's so wrong with that?"

"Everything! Every fraking thing is wrong with that, Lee." A sob broke through, and she felt the last bit of control she had slip away. Her knees gave out as the pain took over, and she could feel Lee's arms lift her up to sit on his desk.

Lee stepped in close and cradled her face in his hands. He pushed the tears off of her cheeks and leaned in to gently whisper in her ear whatever came to mind. He had no plan. All he knew was he had to make her stop crying like this. She hadn't been this upset for years, and it was breaking his heart. Something split inside of him as he watched her collapse. "Shhh. It's okay, Kara. Whatever's wrong, baby, I'll fix it. You just have to tell me. I'll make it go away."

Kara rested her head on his shoulder as she continued to cry. He heard her mumble something, but it was muffled by his own body. He gently shifted their bodies until she looked up at him, and Lee flinched when he saw the raw pain was still written all over her face.

"I never thought you would do it," she whispered.

"Do what?" he asked.

"I thought we were happy. I was wrong, though, wasn't I? You couldn't have been happy if you let me go that easily."

Lee's face lit up in realization. "This is about those stupid papers?"

Her look turned into an outright glare. "You signed them. I didn't think you would sign them."

"Oh, Kara," Lee sighed, pulling her back into him. "If I had known you didn't want me to, I wouldn't have. Gods, I thought it was what you wanted. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. I've been struggling all day to find the courage to let you go."

"I don't want you to go, Lee." Kara's arms circled around his body and held on tight.

"That can be arranged if you would just stop crying for me. You're breaking my heart here."

She let out a laugh and pulled away to wipe her nose with the back of her hand. "Sorry."

"Okay. I need to get this straight. You didn't want me to sign those papers?"

"I didn't."

"And I didn't want to sign those papers." Lee let out a deep breath. "So can you please tell me why I signed those papers then?"

"Because we're two emotional train wrecks who can't seem to communicate even if our fraking lives depended on it?" Kara suggested.

"Sounds about right." Lee let go of Kara long enough to take a seat by her side on the desk. He wrapped his arms around her and let out another sigh. He should have known that something as good as Kara Thrace couldn't happen to him without difficulty.

"So, what do we do now, Lee?" Kara asked after she was finally back in control of her emotions.

"Well, we start with me telling you that I love you for real and then I ask if you want your ring back."

"Sounds good," she said with a smile. "Not the best marriage proposal I've heard, but it's an improvement from last time."

"You didn't like the whole our mission will go smoother if you marry me approach?"

Kara shook her head. "It's not the type of thing little girls dream about."

"But it worked, didn't it?"

"In a way," she agreed.

Lee pretended to be deep in thought for a moment. "How about I love you so much that I can't imagine living another day without you by my side?"

"Getting better."

"I thank the gods every day that if they deemed it necessary for me to give up everything in my life, at least they let me keep you."

Kara smiled at him and shifted her body so that she was straddling his lap as they sat on the desk. His words had a way of bringing out her more carnal side. "Keep going."

"I want to be able to tell you all the things that I never thought I could."

"Like?" she prodded with a smirk.

"Like how beautiful I thought you looked in that dress the day we first got married and how I've wanted to kiss you every time you make that amazingly cute pout and how I never thought I'd have someone in my life as amazing as you."

"Mmm hmmm," Kara whispered in his ear as she wrapped her arms around his back and pulled her body in flush with his.

Lee tried his best to concentrate as Kara leaned in and started nibbling on his ear and raining kisses along his jaw line. "Um… I can't imagine not having you there to point out every little mistake I make in your lovingly sarcastic way."

She drew back and gave him an odd look. "What the frak was that?"

"I don't know," he cried in exasperation. "You keep distracting me."

"You want to see distraction?" Kara used her weight to push Lee down flat on the desk and crushed her lips against his in a rough kiss that took his breath away. He could practically feel the thoughts leaving as she blew his mind with the touch of her tongue alone.

When she finally pulled back from him, Lee tried to catch his breath. He still needed to hear an official yes to his proposal. If this next reason didn't work, then he had no idea what would. "One last thing about why I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Go ahead," she gasped as he shifted their bodies so that he was pinning her down.

"I watched you so many nights when we were on that mission and wondered what it would be like to have you completely. I could feel you, taste you, and I think I almost went insane. I cannot live without knowing how it feels to be inside of you." He watched Kara's eyes flare with desire and knew that he would never again try to keep his love for her in check. Smiling, he reached his hand up to grab the ring that was sitting on his desk. "So what do you say, Kara Thrace? Will you do me the honor of being my wife again?"

Kara's eyes went wide. "Frak me," she whispered.

"That's what I'm trying to do," Lee insisted.

"Gods, Lee. You just ruined it!" Kara yelled, pushing him off of her.

Lee laughed and immediately pulled her back down. She slid into place beneath him so easily that he couldn't help but think this was where she was meant to be. "I'm sorry. Let's try it again. I love you, Kara, and I can't live without you. Please marry me."

She clamped her eyes shut and shook her head in disgrace. "I should have known you and I couldn't do this without fraking up."

"It's in our nature."

Kara opened her eyes and smiled at him. "All right. Enough torture already. Put that ring on me so we can get off this desk before someone busts in."

Lee slid the ring on her finger and gave it a small kiss. "It killed me to take this back from you. You were right when you said I had been saving it for the one woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. It destroyed me knowing that woman wanted to give it back."

Kara laced her fingers in his and shook her head. "I'm not going to give it back again."

Lee let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I'm going to have enough problems being married to you without having to worry about you leaving me again."

"I can make all those problems worthwhile," she said with a wink. She pushed herself out from under him and to her feet. "Don't move."

Lee watched her pick up the phone on the wall of his office and start talking softly to someone on the other end. One minute later, she set the phone down and walked over the door to turn the lock. Lee felt something stir inside of him as she leaned against the locked door and gave him a rather wicked smile. "The Colonel understands that our mission really took a lot out of us," Kara reported. "He told me to let you know we can have a few days leave before getting back into the swing of things."

"Oh really?" Lee said, pushing himself off the desk.

Kara reached out to wrap her arms around his neck as soon as he was close enough. "I figured it was high time we consummated our marriage." His hands came around to lift her up off the ground, and Kara had to bite down on her lip to keep from moaning in anticipation.

"We're not married," Lee pointed out as he brought her back over to the desk.

"You always get caught up on the details, Lee," she scolded.

"Frak you," he growled as he leaned in to plant a trail of light kisses along the side of Kara's face.

"You're trying to," she said with a laugh.

Lee stepped back to look at her and suddenly everything made sense to him. He had been struggling for four years to figure out why the gods sent him and Kara to the Thirteenth Colony ahead of everyone they knew and loved. Now he knew.

If they hadn't been thrown into this completely foreign world with only each other to rely on, there was no way they would have been brave enough to admit how much they loved each other.

"Thanks the gods," Lee whispered as Kara pulled his tank over his head.

He was home.


	4. Chapter 4

Kara blinked her eyes as her body woke up from its slumber. She wasn't surprised to see Lee staring down at her. It seemed he was always watching her when they were sleeping, almost as if he couldn't get enough of her. She sighed in content and reached up to brush a soft kiss across his lips. "I was dreaming about you."

"Were you now?"

"I was remembering the day you asked me to marry you for real."

Lee's smile widened. "That was a good day."

"I thought so, too, until I had to push a kid from my body nine months later."

Lee chuckled. "Yeah, we learned to stop being spontaneous after that day."

"You should just feel lucky that we weren't still on Galactica anymore. I would have killed you for grounding me."

"I love you, Kara," Lee whispered, planting a small kiss on the top of her head.

Kara shifted to look up at him and smiled. "I know."

"Attention all ship personnel. Galactica will be docking on planet in approximately ten minutes." They heard Dee pause in her announcement and hiss, "Do you really want me to say this, Felix?" She must have gotten an affirmative from Gaeta because she cleared her throat and started talking on the ship speakers again. "Starbuck and Apollo, you are instructed by the XO to stop fraking and… um… get your asses down to the hanger bay."

Kara and Lee burst out laughing. "Gaeta obviously forgot it's been twenty years," Lee pointed out when they finally got control of themselves again. "We're not as spry as we once were."

"Lee?"

He looked down at his wife and sighed. "You want to frak next time we're on board."

"Can we?" Kara begged.

Lee chuckled. "There's nothing I'd rather do than finally make love to you in one of these bunks, Kara."

Kara ran her hand down Lee's body. "Gods, I wish we had more time right now."

"Frak me," he whimpered as her hand cupped him through his pants. "We cannot do this, Kara. Not right now."

"Damn," she said, removing her hand and giving him her famous pout.

Lee shifted over her body and stepped out of the bunk. "We should probably stumble our way down to the hangar bay before we're docked. Gaeta's probably going to want reassurance before letting his people off the ship."

"Thank gods we were here, Lee. I don't know what our family would have done if we weren't around to ease them in."

Kara let Lee fuss over her appearance for a moment like he always did before pushing past him into the corridor. They walked silently hand in hand through the halls of the place they had both called home so many years before. Everything looked the same except for maybe a few patches of rust here and there.

The light was already filtering in from the open airlock doors as Kara and Lee finally made it to the hangar bay. They weren't surprised to see most of Galactica's crew was waiting for them to arrive.

"There's no need to be worried," Lee called out. Kara smiled at him as he naturally stepped back into his long-forgotten role on Galactica. "We want to welcome all of you to the Thirteenth Colony. You'll find much is different from the worlds you once knew, but at the very basis, it is the same. This is a place where you can finally give yourself the much needed rest you so bravely earned over the years."

"There should be a delegation outside that will take you into some sort of debriefing," Kara added. "We've been assured that it will be as painless as possible, and you should be given a place to stay within a few hours. The government of Earth wants you to consider yourselves a part of their civilization, and given time, we hope you will come to call this planet your home."

"And please try to behave yourself," Gaeta pleaded as he gave his crew a sharp salute.

Everyone returned his gesture with a smile and began to make their way down the open airlock ramps. Kara and Lee waited until everyone had exited the ship before following suit. Her hand tightened around his as she stepped into the light and saw the abundance of docked ships. The Fleet had made it.

Kara's eyes rested on a young woman leaning against a battle-scarred Viper. The young girl had hair dyed a deep red hue and looked to be rather unimpressed with her surrounding. She reminded Kara of herself when she had just started at the Academy, and she was quick to point that out to Lee.

"She's a pain in the ass like you, too," said a deep voice from behind them.

Kara's eyes went wide, and she let go of Lee's hand in order to fling herself into the open arms of Karl Agathon. "Oh gods, Kara. How I've missed you," Helo whispered as he held on tight.

When the tears had finally dried and Helo had set her back down onto the ground, Kara turned to look at the young woman again. "She's yours?"

"Yeah, that's my daughter. Nadia's going through her rebellious stage right now."

"She wants to be a Viper pilot, and her father just doesn't know how to handle that," Sharon said as she stepped up to stand beside Lee.

Lee paused for a moment before hesitantly saying, "Madam President."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to shoot you, Lee."

"She fights for the side of good now," Helo joked.

Sharon smacked him on the arm the second he got within reach. "Listen. I know this is difficult for you two to comprehend, but my serving as President works well for my people right now."

"Your people meaning humanity or the toasters?" Lee asked.

Sharon glared at him. "Just like your father. You Adamas are so cautious in your trust." She turned to look at Kara. "I guess that would include you now, Kara. I heard about the news. Congratulations."

Kara gave her a small smile and a nod. "Lee and I will take the time to explain your situation to the President here on Earth. We'll do the best we can, Sharon, but we can't promise you anything."

"I have no doubt about that." Sharon sighed. "Is it wrong of me to be so sad on such an important day?"

The four pilots stood in silence as their minds all drifted back to the day this whole struggle had started. None of them thought it would take this long or that they would have to sacrifice so much to get here.

"President Roslin left me a message to tell you two on the day we found you again," Sharon said quietly. "She was so delirious towards that end that I wasn't sure she knew what she was saying. Then I heard you had returned to the Fleet."

At Kara and Lee's looks of confusion, Helo stepped in to explain. "Laura Roslin requested meetings with Sharon several times in her last few days. It always seemed like she knew more than everyone else."

"She wanted me to promise that I would protect the Fleet and my child with everything I had until the day in which she said two lost souls would show up to take the responsibility away from me. At the time, I thought it was just her normal prophecy talk. I mean, it didn't make a lot of sense to me how I could protect the Fleet from my glass cell. Then your father invited me to take on the Presidency, Lee."

"Sharon is the sole reason we been in the position to relax these past few years," Helo offered. "The Cylons have stopped chasing us."

"That's good," Kara replied. "I would have had to kick your asses if you brought those fraking things here with you. I've worked too hard to keep this word in one piece only to have you people screw it all up."

"I had a feeling you would say that," Helo joked.

They lapsed into a calm silence again, and Sharon took the opportunity to once more begin relaying the message entrusted to her. "President Roslin told me to let you know that she was incredibly proud of the sacrifices you two have made for the safety of humanity. She wanted you to know that she was as proud of you as only a mother can be, Lee. You taught her that it was okay to lean on people even when she was supposed to be a pillar of strength."

Lee felt Kara's hand reach out to rest in his, and he gave Sharon a small nod. Learning that the gods had seen fit to take Laura Roslin away from this plane of existence hurt him deeply, but he also knew that there had been little chance her cancer would not take her life in the twenty years they had been apart.

"Kara, the President wanted me to assure you that your destiny was never what you thought it would be."

"Excuse me?" Kara exclaimed. She could feel Lee stiffen beside her, and she found herself wondering why she had never told him about the things Leoben Conoy and Simon had told her years earlier. It had never seemed important since the two of them had managed to make a home far away from the Cylons' reach. Maybe she should have, though.

"You have been told numerous times that you play a critical part in the events to come by the Cylons. The President knew that this burden plagued you greatly, and she wanted you to know that your role was something to be proud of." Sharon gave Kara a warm smile and stepped out to rest her hand on her old friend's shoulder. "You were selected by the gods to pave the way for the Fleet to find their new home. Throughout each lifetime, you have always been the one that gave humanity the hope that they could survive. That is your role, Kara Thrace, and yours alone."

Kara gave her a small nod as she fought to hold back tears. She didn't want to cry right now. There had already been too much of that in her life.

"We have to be going," Lee said as he wrapped his arm around his wife. He could feel Kara was teetering on the edge of something and knew she probably wanted to tell him what was going on. It was odd how good their communication skills had grown in the past sixteen years. Tearing himself from his thoughts, Lee gave Helo and Sharon a quick nod. "There are a million things that need to be done so that everyone in the Fleet can start their new lives."

"I understand," Sharon said. She took a small step back towards her husband.

Kara let Lee lead her past the Viper that Helo and Sharon's daughter was still leaning against before she turned back. Her eyes rested on the two people who had been her closet friends in the whole Fleet pre-attacks. "When you're cleared, I want you to come over and meet our children," Kara called out. "Bring Nadia. It might be nice for her to have someone to relate to in the jumble of this strange planet."

She could see the relief pass across both Sharon and Helo's face as they understood what she was offering. It was a lot more than just a simple introduction of families. Kara was giving them the forgiveness they had both been desperate for since the day she stumbled upon them in the Delphi Museum.

Kara turned to look up at her husband. "I want to go home and see my children, Lee."

He nodded and started leading her through the docks. As they made it to one of the planetary transports, Kara paused to glare at her husband. "And don't think I forgot what you did to help our son set fire to the backyard. Zak would never have gotten that crazy notion into his head if you hadn't let him stay home from school and if you hadn't taken him to see that stupid pyrotechnics display last week. Sometimes I really wonder if you're cut out for this whole parenting thing, Lee. It seems like I'm the only responsible one in this relationship."

Lee stared at the passionate beauty of his wife for a moment before he began arguing back. It was good to be home.


End file.
